


Troubled Lullaby

by LeraOmo (Lera_Myers)



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Bed-Wetting, Darkspawn, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Omorashi, Wetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18727978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lera_Myers/pseuds/LeraOmo
Summary: Tabris's nightmares of the archdemon have made her start wetting the bed. As she and Leliana become close, she worries this will affect their relationship.





	Troubled Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the tags. This story contains omorashi, though it's more hurt/comfort than actual kink.

Tabris needs to start keeping a running list of things she wishes she’d been told before she took the Joining. Keeping so many secrets, for one, and spending all this time underground. She’s not really a fan of being on the road as much as they are, either. But there’s no question what would top her list: the archdemon nightmares. Specifically, the side effects of them.

The first one comes so early on, she’s hardly had a chance to get used to her new role. As she sleeps, hordes of darkspawn swim into her mind’s eye. They trot in unevenly, some crooked and shambling, some galloping, still others hopping up and down. Above them, the archdemon watches with a purr of appreciation.

At the sound, the darkspawn - _Maker, so many darkspawn!_ \- about-face, looking up. She can see them as if they’re coming closer and closer, sharp teeth and claws everywhere, eyes wide in anticipation. They stand like puppets on strings, waiting for one beat, two…

The dragon opens its mouth, emitting a bloodcurdling screech. Each vibration of its sound shakes her body to its very core, making her insides tremble. Tabris would surely scream if she could, but all she can do is watch, her jaw frozen as if stuck shut, her eyes fixed on the fire erupting from the creature’s mouth as it traces a scalding heat over her groin, between her thighs, and then -

She jolts awake, heart hammering in her chest.

The images are in no hurry to fade from her mind, but Tabris tries to will them away, focusing on the tent’s thin material above her. _Right._ She was asleep almost from the minute they made camp last night. It must be near morning now, if the sound of Morrigan and Leliana chatting outside is any indication. Tabris can’t help perking up a bit. Maybe she can steal a few minutes with her favorite cloistered sister; private conversations are a rarity on the road.

She starts to sit up and freezes, the smile vanishing from her face. In an instant, she’s kicking the flap of her bedroll open.

It’s a situation she hasn’t been in since she was a small child, but she recognizes the feeling all too well. Her drenched nightclothes stick to her lower body, and the bedroll is stained with the unmistakeable smell of pee. Tabris can do nothing but stare, wide-eyed. She can’t _remember_ the last time this happened.

“Tabris?” Alistair calls from outside. “Are you awake?” He must have heard her shifting, and the thought makes her nearly lightheaded with panic.

“Hold on! I’m - changing!” Her voice is shaking, but that’s much easier to explain away than what he’d see if he opened the tent now. With the speed of a Shriek, she swaps her nightclothes for armor, using a cloth to dry herself, and rolls the wet things up together. She’ll toss them later; washing them right now would scream the news of her accident to the whole camp.

The others are already up and getting ready for the day, but Alistair stops when he sees her. Moving closer, he lowers his voice in sympathy.

“Bad dreams, huh?” he asks, inclining his head towards her tent. “I heard you thrashing around.”

Tabris can only nod, her heart in her throat. “Yeah,” she manages. “Must have been something I ate.”

Alistair gives her a crooked smile. “Drank, more like,” he says, and she feels her blood turn to ice. He _knows,_ she’s certain he found her out - but then he continues, “As in the tainted blood, remember? You see, part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the darkspawn. That’s what your dream was. Hearing them.”

Once his words settle into her mind, Tabris goes limp with relief. _He has no idea._ Alistair keeps talking, but she can barely hear him, too caught up in her own head. She can only hope she’s nodding in all the right places.

When he pauses, she manages a question. “Are these dreams going to happen a lot?” Not that she expects that…incident…to happen again, but it seems like a fair question.

“It takes a bit, but eventually you can block the dreams out.”

She nods. It’s not a direct answer, but it’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel - wherever that is. Anyway, it was probably just a one-time thing. She must have slept more deeply than usual. Pissing the bed isn’t something people _do_ at her age.

As they pull up camp, Leliana trots over, flashing Tabris a smile. She starts to talk about their plans and the road ahead, and between all of it, there’s more than enough cause to put that morning out of her mind.

* * *

 It happens again, a few weeks later, at an inn in the middle of nowhere. The past few days were cold and rainy enough that Tabris’s fingers kept going numb inside her gloves, and she’s sure she wasn’t the only one. When she suggested they take the opportunity to sleep in real beds for the night, nobody even hesitated in agreeing.

She’s had no nightmares of the darkspawn since the first incident, and this one wakes her with a start. For a few seconds, she fights to clear the fog from her mind, feeling only the lingering panic of the dream and a strange warmth she can’t place. Then her eyes come fully open - it’s happening again, the wetness still flowing - and she tenses every muscle, stopping the stream trickling out of her.

 _Please, please tell me I woke up just in time?_ But no luck. The sheets are soaked when she untangles them from around her thighs, and her face burns as she drags the chamber pot towards herself.

Maker’s balls, there’s going to be a servant who gets stuck cleaning this up. The discomfort of that idea makes her shudder. What if they say something? What if one of her companions _hears_? She can’t bear imagining what they’d think of it - a Grey Warden hoping to save Ferelden when she’s not even reliably dry at night.

Tabris’s hands are shaking so much that doing up her armor is a struggle. She counts out a few extra silvers (hopefully it’s enough that the poor person who cleans this room will keep their mouth shut) and slips out the door. It’s still early, and the fresh air should clear her head a little.

Maybe it has to do with something she ate. Last night she had a bit of mead with her stew, to wash it down. That’s not the most uncommon for her, but still, maybe…?

She’s still chewing on that question when she rounds the corner and finds Leliana outside, repacking one of their bags. Lifting her head, she smiles at the Warden.

“You’re up early. Good morning.”

Tabris nods. “I…had another nightmare,” she admits.

Leliana frowns, standing up. “Do you want to talk about it?” When Tabris shakes her head, her friend persists: “Would a hug be all right?”

“I’d like that,” Tabris murmurs, and Leliana gives her a tight squeeze. Even what led up to this can’t chase away the butterflies in her stomach. It’s a little moment of heaven.

* * *

 She tries to prevent it. The nightmares may not be controllable yet, but she picks up more watch shifts for the middle of the night, and makes a point of relieving herself before she goes back to sleep. It may not stop the accidents, but at least it minimizes the damage; a damp pair of nightclothes is easier to hide (and wash) than a soaking wet bedroll.

It’s not like the exhaustion is fun, but this is a temporary solution, just until things get a little more under control. Besides - a little smile curves up her lips as she thinks about it - it means watch shifts with Leliana. The bard tells her stories while Tabris listens in fascination. Now and then Leliana will drift off leaning against her, and Tabris will simply sit and enjoy the moment, unwilling to wake her for anything less than a darkspawn attack.

Their first kiss is on night watch. If it took a few wet sheets to get here, Tabris thinks, the trade-off was _completely_ worth it.

* * *

Leliana invites her to bed, smooth and collected, just the way Tabris would have expected her to do it. The Warden tries not to fall asleep afterwards, terrified of what might happen, but it’s so warm and cozy, and she feels more relaxed than she has in _weeks._ She means only to doze, but she’s asleep in no time.

She’s alone when she wakes the next morning, a blurry form above her. Tabris reaches up to rub her eyes, squinting blearily. Leliana’s sitting next to her, watching with what can only be described as a blissful smile.

“Hello,” the bard says.

“Good morning.” Tabris smiles at her groggily. “Did you sleep well?”

Leliana nods. “I’ve been up for some time, but yes, I slept very well. I’ve just been watching _you_ sleep.”

_Watching me -_

All the panic comes back in a rush; she tries to be subtle about feeling the front of her nightclothes. Oh, thank the Maker, she’s dry. She doesn’t even trust herself when there’s not a nightmare anymore.

Leliana chatters, lovely little things about comfort and security, and Tabris feels the knot in her chest loosen. She can’t help but grin.

Maybe they’ll be okay after all. Maybe it was only a passing phase.

* * *

Nearly a month without an archdemon dream, and she lets down her guard too much. This time she wakes not to the nightmare, but to Leliana shaking her. Tabris comes up from the Fade with a gasp and a wide-eyed expression, eyes open but seeing nothing. Her throat is frozen over, her mind unable to register anything but her girlfriend’s soft murmuring.

“It’s all right. You’ve dreamed something - it’s not real. I’m here.”

Slowly, her vision starts to clear, and her breathing settles. Sensations come back to her one by one. Leliana looking down at her - she’s still dressed, she must have just come in from her shift on watch. Her hair, soaked with sweat, sticking to her forehead. And the bedroll beneath her -

No. Oh, no.

She feels her face crumple, hot tears gathering behind her eyes, and blinks hard to hold them back. With a worried look, Leliana moves to hug her, and Tabris feels her heart skip a beat. She nearly yelps out loud as she pulls back, holding the blanket at her navel.

“Oh, _chérie,_ you’re safe,” Leliana pleads, arms open. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s - I - ”

Tabris wants nothing more than to go into them, to be comforted and reassured, but she _can’t._ There has to be a way to fix this. She needs to get Leliana out of the tent, change, get rid of her wet things, and somehow keep her girlfriend from noticing. But - how do you keep a bard from noticing things? And -

“You’ve wet the bed?” Leliana asks, so gently that the hot pressure behind Tabris’s eyes spills over. Burying her face in her hands, she sniffles, and Leliana hugs her tight at once. “Oh, Kallian, please don’t cry. Clothes can be washed.”

Tabris sobs anyway, clinging to her. She can’t help it. The more she tries to stop herself, the more insistent the tears become, and somehow Leliana being so sweet only makes her cry harder. Even now the bard is stroking her hair, whispering that it’s all right, these things happen, all this is is extra washing.

“The archdemon dreams - they’re so much,” Tabris insists when she has her breath back. She’s flushed into her neck, she can feel it. Maker, if pissing herself didn’t make Leliana think of her as a child, crying about it must.

The bard only nods, not releasing her from the hug. “They seem terrible.”

Tabris sniffles. Her clothes are starting to itch, and she squirms against the material. “I - I want to change.”

“You change, then.” Leliana presses a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll wash your things.”

She starts to get up, but Tabris grabs her arm, terrified. “Someone might see you, and then everyone will know!"

“It’s only Wynne outside, _chérie._ If she asks, I’ll say it was my monthly.”

Tabris lets out the breath she’s been holding. “All right.” Even if Wynne finds out the truth, she won't spread it around.

She lets the tears come, just briefly, as she cleans up. By the time Leliana reappears with her arms full of blankets, Tabris has gotten herself back under control, and changed into dry things. Without a word between them, they bunch the sheets up into a sort of nest around each other, then snuggle in. Tabris buries her face in Leliana’s neck.

“Thank you. For…you know.”

Draping her legs over her girlfriend’s, Leliana strokes Tabris’s hair comfortingly. “I would be afraid of those dreams, too,” she admits. “I can listen, if you want to talk.”

Tabris shakes her head. “I’m okay now.”

In truth, she’s more than okay. Nothing could be further away than the memory of that dream now. This is the way she falls asleep: nestled in Leliana’s arms, feeling safe, warm, and utterly loved.


End file.
